Kadhai Paneer

Last night I came home from office after a 2-hour drive through the horrible traffic jams. The journey would have ideally been somewhere between 45 minutes to a little over an hour. And I came home to find that my mom was not only busier than I was, but also that she too was stuck in a traffic jam. Since it was close to dinner time and no dinner in sight, I volunteered to prepare the entire meal. The rice, dal and my very simple spicy pepper squid (another post) turned out well, I hunted for simple paneer recipes and came across Tarla Dalal’s Kadhai Paneer recipe on http://www.tarladalal.com.  

It was easy and tasted really, really good. Here's how you make it:

Preparation Time: 30 min.

Cooking Time: 20 min.
Serves 6.

Ingredients

500 gms (1 1/8 lb.) paneer (cottage cheese)
100 gms capsicum
2 tsp coriander (dhania) seeds
5 whole red chillies
3/4 tsp dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi)
2 green chillies, chopped
2 tsp chopped ginger
4 tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsp chopped coriander (dhania)
3 tbsp ghee (I don’t like oily food so I did cut down on the ghee and added vegetable oil to nearly half the quantity mentioned here)
salt to taste

For the paste
6 cloves garlic (lehsun) mixed with a little water

Method

1. Slice the paneer and capsicum into thin long strips.
2. Pound the coriander seeds and red chillies together.
3. Heat the ghee, add the garlic paste and cook on a slow flame for a few seconds.
4. Add the capsicum and pounded spices and cook on a slow flame for 30 seconds.
5. Add the green chillies and ginger and fry again for a few seconds.
6. Add the tomatoes and cook until the ghee comes on top. (note: I’ll be using tomato paste next time. Also I ended up adding about 2 Tbsp tomato ketchup to make it a little “saucier”)
7. Add the kasoori methi and salt and fry again for a few seconds.
8. Finally, add the sliced paneer and cook for a few minutes.
9. Sprinkle coriander on top and serve hot.

Tangy okra (bhindi)

Yes, this is a recipe. Yes, I cook...occasionally and often reluctantly. In the more recent months, however, I have re-discovered the joys of cooking. Well, to be honest, it's the joy of trying out new recipes. I'm happy to report that my family is now less jittery when I enter the kitchen to cook. And now that my cook has left us, I'm happy to work cook (and clean the kitchen simultaneously) while my mom gets her break from usual cooking.

Last night, certain circumstances forced me to cook dinner yet again and I used that opportunity to try out a simple recipe that I found on www.khanakhazana.com. It turned out so yummy that I would have paid good bucks to have it in a restaurant. No, I'm not boasting about my cooking skills here since my culinary skills are quite rudimentary to be honest but the fact that a person with limited cooking skills like myself was able to follow the recipe and present something that tasted as good as this did deserves praise, don't you think?

Also, I decided that I just had to start collecting my successful kitchen experiments. After all, if I can cook, you can too!  

(PS: I wish I had taken a better photo :P )

Here's how to create a bowl of amazing tangy okra:

Ingredients

• 1/2 kg lady's finger (okra/bhindi)
• 1 big Onion
• 4-5 red chillies
• 1 clove Garlic
• 1 Lemon
• 2 tsp Jeera
• 1 Tomato
• 1/2 tsp Haldi powder
• 1 tsp Dhania powder
• salt according to taste
• cooking oil

Directions

1. Wash and cut Okra (Bhindi) in 4-5 pieces each. Don't wash it after cutting, it will make the preparation very gooey.
2. Heat oil in a pan add jeera on it till brown, now add chopped onion and fry till lite brown
3. Add diced Okra and fry for some time
4. then add lemon on it. Don't put water
5. then add haldi powder, dhania powder.
6. Cover and simmer it for 15 min
7. make a chutney of red chillies, garlic, tomatoes and salt
8. Now add chutney on it and mix well
9. Cook anther 10 min on low flame and cover on it
10. its ready to serve